Written by: Ethan Morgan
The GSP community reached out last Tuesday, July 8th, to help the City of Murray with some grave restoration projects as a way to give back to the community and explore ideas relevant to specific focus areas. The Murray Cemetery, which spans 54 acres and includes 10,000 graves, has been the resting place for citizens of the City of Murray and Calloway County for many years. Of those 10,000 graves, many date back into the 19th century and a couple even to the 18th century. Two general studies groups helped out with the project. Both of them had a combined interest in this project, with Tana Fields’ “Modern Echos” focusing on traditions, folklore, history, and customs; while Bella Ezumah’s “Mining the Gold in Silence,” had a different focus.
As Bella so poetically put it herself, “The justification [of my general studies attending the field trip was] that these were people who made an impact on their communities, and we’re visiting them and of course they are resting in silence, so it was a time to reflect the state of their being. The scholars did a phenomenal job and they were able to [research] their names and learn about their work and impact.”
The scholars were accompanied by James Seaver, the community Engagement Coordinator of the Kentucky Historical Society. Mr. Seaver also served the GSP community for
11 years as a faculty member. Mr. Seaver is more than well qualified for his position at the KHS, with a B.A. in history from the University of Kentucky and an accompanying M.A. Ph.D in history from Indiana University. Mr. Seaver’s main purpose was to promote community outreach and involvement in each of the scholars’ hometowns. The project started off with Mr. Seaver giving everyone the run down on how to restore graves, the basic facts of respecting the dead, and how to ask for permission through the chain of command. Following, he detailed the manual of instructions which included always making sure to keep the stone wet to stop any abrasions that come from scrubbing or brushing. The stones soak up water quickly, so an ample supply it is vital. The Murray Sanitation department, who is in charge of the Murray Cemetery, kindly supplied a water truck to the nearly 35 scholars.
As some of the headstones are quite old, they have acquired mounds of moss, lichen, and plain old dirt. The game plan was to start by scraping off all of the residue you could with a spackle scrapper, then use horse shampoo and equine brushes to slowly restore the graves. Mr. Seaver left the Scholars with two important mantras: “When cleaning headstones, never use any product or utensils that you wouldn’t use on a horse” and “The point of this project or any other headstone restoration is not to make them perfect, just make them look better.”
The Scholars were also able to research their person. Many of the people and graves pre-dated the Civil War, and many were monuments to war heroes, preachers, or just everyday folks. One interesting name was “Jefferson Davis (Last Name),” who happened to be born in the early months of 1861, right when the Confederates seceded in February of 1861 and elected Kentuckian Jefferson Davis as president. Mr. Seaver explained that even though Kentucky never succeeded and is the only state to have close to equal enlistment numbers on both sides, Western Kentucky was very much Pro-Confederate. Some evidence of this was the Battle of Paducah, the Tilghman High School which is the namesake of Lloyd Tilghman Conf. Gen, who participated in the hallowed battle of Vicksburg, and of course the many other names found in the cemetery. It was apparent that Mr. Seaver was not only just knowledgeable about the subject but passionate as well. For instance, he pointed out that the influx of infant deaths during the years of 1918-1920 was likely due to the Spanish Flu, in which a third of the world’s population was infected and millions died.
Mr. Seaver gave the scholars a tour, showing them new types of graves and the consequences of a natural disaster in a cemetery. On the tail end of the tour scholars stopped by a more visually unpleasant side of the cemetery, which happened to be the historically black side. We were asked to turn around and look at the rolling hills of tall and white stone mausoleums, monuments, and headstones with flowers, lights, and flags, then we turned back around the see small homemade stones, featuring handwritten etching and homeade rebar to keep the monuments intact. Mr. Seaver told us that issues such as segregation can still sometimes linger even beyond the grave, further explaining that through segregation and not enough funding to historically black cemeteries they often fall into disrepair.
The scholars were in for a treat when Mr. Seaver took the reins of grave restorations, for not only did they learn how and why to restore graves, but they also learned a little history along the way.
For anyone interested in completing their own headstone restoration, please contact
- Ethan Morgan